Saturday, November 15, 2008

Hearing dog prospect?

He's got places to go...
Mom says she has never seen a puppy so attuned to noises in its environment like Bryce is. Fidos trains two types of Assistance Dogs...Service and Hearing. The Hearing Dogs help people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing...by alerting them to sounds. The trainers know usually around a year old if the dog is really interested in sounds or not. You can tell when they're puppies too...but it sometimes will change as they grow older.

But Bryce is the first one to pay attention to every little noise in the house. Mom swears he's a Hearing Dog in the making. He listens to the TV when funny noises happen, he listens to all the bells and whistles in the kitchen, and even went to investigate the dripping water noise from the downspout while he was playing in the backyard. Just now, she was bringing him into the office so she could keep an eye on him...she started closing the door as he was coming through, and he stopped to investigate the sound of the hinges (they're new and they squeak a tiny bit).

He's a bold puppy, so he usually investigates or tries to...rather than noticing a sound and running away scared. Mom's having fun by letting him go see all these noises, and making happy talk when he goes the source of a sound.

Bryce has a long road ahead of him, but he's already making great strides towards being a wonderful Assistance Dog...maybe a Hearing Dog like my friend Chloe!

~SDS

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sawyer,
Bryce sounds like a smart pup. "Mom" is pretty smart too learning what he's good at IMHO. She must have a bit of puppy in her.

My mom's students aren't exactly happy with me right now. They discovered that I've learned what a vibrating cell phone sounds like. Now mom politely "nails them" and asks them to kindly put the phone up. See? You can teach an old dog new ... erm... sounds. I'm four now and I'm still learning!
- Chloe -

Service Dog Sawyer said...

Good for you, Chloe! You show those kids who is boss! lol

~SDS

Anonymous said...

Smudge says being nosey is Good. He finds all sorts of things in other people's bags.
*blushes*

FOL (Smudge's mum)